The Reality Behind CamelBak’s Tritan Renew Bottles: Sustainability Claims and Recycled Content

The Promise of Sustainability: CamelBak’s Tritan Renew Bottles

The colorful plastic CamelBak bottles showcased at a Target store in East Hanover, N.J., present an enticing promise to environmentally conscious consumers. Each bottle proudly displays a vibrant blue sticker proclaiming, “Tritan Renew made with 50% recycled material.” However, the reality behind this claim raises questions about the actual percentage of recycled plastic used in the production of these bottles.

Eastman Chemical, a prominent company based in Kingsport, Tennessee, with annual revenues reaching $9.2 billion, introduced a robust plastic known as Tritan Renew four years ago. The company advertised this material as being made with “up to 50 percent recycled content from waste plastic.” This appealing proposition quickly resonated with manufacturers eager to meet sustainability targets and attract consumers committed to reducing plastic waste in landfills and oceans.

Today, a multitude of brands have adopted this innovative material. CamelBak and Nalgene utilize Tritan Renew for their sports water bottles, while Ferragamo has released a line of sunglasses crafted from the same plastic. Additionally, Stanley Black & Decker has launched a new series of power tools dubbed Reviva, made from Tritan Renew. Yet, the pressing question remains: is there any guarantee that a specific bottle, power tool, or pair of sunglasses contains the claimed recycled plastic?

According to C. Jason Pierce, a senior technical leader specializing in Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment at Eastman Chemical, the actual percentage of recycled plastic in products made from Tritan Renew can vary significantly. “It could be a very low percentage that is physically in there; it could be a high percentage,” he stated when asked about the recycled content in CamelBak water bottles this spring. “You can’t know how much.”

This uncertainty leads to a critical examination of how Eastman substantiates its claim that Tritan Renew incorporates up to 50 percent recycled material. The company employs a green certification system known as “mass balance,” which allows them to allocate recycled inputs to their products, but the actual recycled content in each individual item may remain opaque.